5 Ways to Reuse Your Content Across Social Media Platforms

Social media doesn’t have to be a major time sink. You can boost your engagement with customers and prospects across channels simply by repurposing your original content.

For example, let’s say you spend several hours writing a new post for your business’s blog. In it, you provide expert insights only you can offer, backed up by research. Once you’ve published the information, you’re ready to share it. Providing its title with a link on Facebook and Twitter is fine when the post first goes live. But how can you continue to promote your content in the days and weeks that follow?

The answer: Grab individual elements from your blog post and serve them up in a way that complements specific social networks.

1. Turn the photo into a pin. Every blog post should feature at least one high-quality photo. Pin this image, along with an enticing sentence that sums up the post, to your primary board on Pinterest. Set the source link to your blog post. Also share the photo, along with the top takeaways from the post, on Google+ and Facebook. Be sure to include links back to your blog and your pin. Cross-promotion is essential!

2. Create a photo with a compelling quote from the blog post. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to make this happen. Plenty of tools automate the process, such as the mobile apps InstaQuote and Overgram. Of course, you could also use professional photo-editing software like Photoshop or Pixelmator. Share the finished product on Instagram.

3. Reuse the photo-quote on other social sites. Wait a few weeks after posting the quote to Instagram and then share it on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ with a link to the blog post as a “reminder” of your content to your followers and friends. Try to avoid sharing the same content on all of your social accounts on the same day, to avoid appearing lazy.

4. Tweet individual tips from the blog post over time. You may be concerned that you’re “giving away the farm” and that followers won’t click through to your post. You’re not, and they will. Your short bursts of info act as bait. If you want your tweets to be retweeted, keep them under 120 characters, Search Engine Watch says. No one likes to see retweets with the last few words cut off. Also, be sure to re-share your tweets four times, eight hours apart, to make sure you catch people across all time zones, according to Guy Kawasaki, founder of Alltop.

5. Create a presentation. Pull the main ideas from your blog post — with a few key quotations — and turn them into slides. If you need visuals, it’s easy to find Creative Commons-licensed images on sites like Morguefile, Flickr, and Compfight. Upload your polished presentation to a site like SlideShare. (You could also pin each of your slides to Pinterest.)